Archers Make Strides in Loss to East Central

For Tim Mosby, this loss was different. The St. Louis Community College head men’s soccer coach had just seen his team drop its third game over a five-day span, but Monday’s 2-1 defeat to East Central College bore little resemblance to the previous two games.

“I think we finally came with the heart that we need to have,” Mosby said. “We’re not going to out-skill people. We’re not going to finesse them. We have to bring energy and I thought that second half, we were right back in the game, we scored a goal off of effort, and we nearly came all the way back. We probably should have won the game with the chances that we had.”

In what has become a frustrating trend for Mosby and assistant coach Matt Benoist, the Archers fell in a quick 2-0 hole by allowing a pair of goals within the final six minutes of the first half. In contrast with that recent trend, however, was the second-half resurgence that saw freshman forward Edin Mehmedovic notch his team-leading fifth goal of the season.

That late rally comes at an opportune time for the Archers, who will play five games over an eight-day stretch, three of which will be on the road. Mosby, who after Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Neosho County Community College said he simply wanted the Archers to be playing their best soccer by season’s end, viewed Monday’s effort as a step in that direction.

“Big step today,” Mosby said. “Obviously, we have some things that we’re going to work on, but if we play that way with that fight at regionals, we can do something.”

The Archers will return to action Thursday (Oct. 2), when they travel to Lewis and Clark Community College. Game time is 4:15 p.m.